Chapter 1
Evaluation Scenario Overview

This chapter describes the goals of the evaluation deployment, explains the architecture used in the evaluation deployment, and summarizes the procedures that are contained in this document for installing, configuring, and using the evaluation deployment.

About Java Enterprise System

Sun Java Enterprise System (Java ES) is infrastructure software that supports a wide range of enterprise computing needs, such as creating a secure intranet portal that provides the employees of an enterprise with secure access to email, calendar, and in-house business applications.

Java ES is composed of software components, such as Sun Java System Directory Server and Identity Server. To meet the computing needs of different enterprises, Java ES components can be combined in many different ways.

Each enterprise assesses its own needs and plans its own deployment of Java ES components. The optimal deployment for an enterprise depends on the Java ES services that are needed, the number of users that must be served, the kind of hardware that is available, and similar considerations.

Goals of the Evaluation

This document describes how to install a basic set of Java ES components and configure them to provide networked messaging, calendar, and portal services without any custom application programming. This document also describes how to set up LDAP user accounts so you can access these services through their web-based interfaces.

The set of components you install for evaluation also supports single sign-on and proxy authentication, so that you can evaluate these Java ES features. This document describes how to configure these features.

By following the procedures in this document, you learn how Java ES components provide core, shared, networked services for an organization’s employees and customers. You learn how to access these core services through built-in, web-based interfaces. You also learn enough about the capabilities of Java ES to imagine how a Java ES deployment could deliver services to your organization’s employees and customers.

About the Evaluation Deployment

The evaluation deployment uses a set of Java ES components that provide portal, messaging, and calendar services. This section describes how the deployment architecture for the evaluation deployment was developed. It follows the deployment planning methodology described in Java Enterprise System Deployment Planning White Paper.

Evaluation Use Cases

The first stage of the deployment planning methodology is developing a set of use cases that describe the desired behavior of the Java ES deployment. The evaluation deployment is designed to demonstrate some basic Java ES features. It supports the following use cases:

Installer use case: install the Java Enterprise System components on one system.

End user use case: use single sign-on to access the mail, calender, and portal services.

Administrator use case: configure proxy authentication.

End user use case: use the portal desktop to interact with the mail and calendar services to demonstrate successful configuration of proxy authentication.

This document shows you how to set up a working Java Enterprise System that implements these use cases.

Evaluation Deployment Scenario

The second step in the deployment planning methodology is developing a deployment scenario. A deployment scenario identifies the Java Enterprise System components that are needed to implement the use cases. This section describes the deployment scenario developed for the evaluation use cases listed in Evaluation Use Cases.

A deployment scenario consists of two pieces, a logical architecture and a set of system requirements.

Logical Architecture

The logical architecture identifies the Java Enterprise System components that provide the services described in the evaluation use cases. The logical architecture for the evaluation use cases is illustrated in Figure 1-1.

Figure 1-1 Evaluation Deployment Logical Architecture

Figure 1-1 shows the logical architecture that implements the evaluation use cases. The components are shown in several tiers. The tiers show how the components could be distributed in a networked, production deployment.

For the purposes of the evaluation deployment, the significant features of Figure 1-1 are the following:

The components that provide the services for the evaluation deployment are Portal Server, Communications Express, Messaging Server, Identity Server, Calendar Server, and Directory Server. Web Server is included in the deployment to provide web container support for Portal Server and Identity Server. (Messaging Server and Calendar Server have their own web containers.)

Evaluation end users access mail, calendar, and portal services through built-in web interfaces. This is represented by the web browser clients that appear at the far left.

The multi-tiered architecture makes it possible to configure other user interfaces, such as stand-alone mail clients, for use with Java ES services. For more information on Java ES architecture, see Java Enterprise System Technical Overview (http://docs.sun.com/doc/817-5764).

Directory Server provides directory services that support all of the other components.

System Requirements

A logical architecture identifies the Java ES components that provide the services described in the use cases. A logical architecture does not tell you how the components are installed on your network. In a typical production deployment, multiple instances of the components are distributed among several hardware systems, in order to achieve desired levels of response time, service availability, service reliability, and so on.

To determine this level of detail for your deployment, you analyze your business needs and develop a set of system requirements. The system requirements specify important characteristics of the deployment, such as the number of users that must be supported, the response time that your users must experience, and the amount of down time that is permitted.

You apply the system requirements to the logical architecture, and you determine what kind of distribution of the Java ES components is needed to support your system requirements and what kind of hardware is necessary to run the distributed deployment. For more information on these aspects of a planning a Java ES deployment, see Java Enterprise System Deployment Planning White Paper (http://docs.sun.com/doc/817-5759)

The evaluation deployment described in this document only needs to support a handful of users, and there is no need for continuous availability or the other features of a production deployment. Therefore, the system requirements for the evaluation deployment are minimal. These requirements are listed below:

Load and performance requirements: None

Availability requirements: None

Security requirements: Authentication, single sign-on

Serviceability requirements: None

Scalability requirements: None

Evaluation Deployment Architecture

You apply the system requirements to the logical architecture, and you determine what kind of hardware is needed to support your user base at the desired levels of availability and performance. This is expressed in a deployment architecture.

The evaluation deployment’s minimal system requirements are easily satisfied by installing the components that appear in the logical architecture on one system. The rest of this document describes how to install, configure, and use the evaluation deployment on one system.

Evaluation Procedure Summary

This section summarizes the procedures that appear in this document for installing, configuring, and using the Java ES evaluation deployment. The procedures are summarized in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1 Summary of Evaluation Procedures

Task

Description

For Instructions

Implement the evaluation deployment architecture.

Use the Java Enterprise System installer to install the components that are included in the deployment architecture.